These are the world's most powerful passports

• An updated ranking of the most powerful passports reveals which passports grant access to the most countries.• Germany remains in first place, with visa-free access to 158 nations worldwide.• The US is in third place, tied with a number of European countries including the UK and Denmark.

Whether you use it frequently or have it sitting in your sock drawer for most of the year, your passport is an incredibly powerful document.

Especially if you carry a German passport — which grants visa-free travel to 158 countries, and remains the best in the world.

That's according to the Global Passport Power Rank 2017, a real-time ranking of passports based on a "visa-free score," which indicates the number of countries their holders can access without a visa. The ranking, which includes 199 countries, was put together using data collected by the global financial advisory firm, Arton Capital.

Tied with Sweden, Singapore claims second place in this year's ranking with access to 157 countries, taking South Korea's spot in the 2016 ranking.

A passport from the US is the next best, tied with passports from the UK, Denmark, Finland, France, Norway, and Spain, all of which permit visa-free travel to 156 countries.

A German passport gives access to 158 countries without a visa.LIVINUS/iStock

On the other end of the spectrum, Afghanistan scored lowest in the ranking, with access to just 23 countries, followed by Pakistan (26 countries), and Iraq (28).

Meanwhile, some countries upped the number of countries their passport holders could travel to. Marshall Islands (no. 44 in the ranking) added 35 countries, bringing its score to 102, and Peru (no. 30) added 31 countries to reach a score of 119.

Here are the top 10 results in the ranking, and the visa-free score for each:(Please note, the ranking is in real-time and the below rank and scores are correct at the time of publishing.)